Quick action precision vise



y 951 H. G. RENNER 2,552,738

QUICK ACTION PRECISION VISE Filed Aug. 1, 1947 INVENTOR.

' HAROLD G.RENNER J I BY J MTORNEY 3 Patented May 15, 1951 UNITED STATESPTIENT OFFICE QUICK ACTION PRECISION VISE Harold G. Renner, Detroit,Mich.

Application August 1, 1947, Serial No. 765,529

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to vises and particularly Vises designed tomaintain accurate parallelism of the clamping faces of their jaws.

An object of the invention is to improve a vise of the type in which ajaw slides on a base to and from a fixed jaw, and is clamped to the basein selective positions by setting up a tensional reaction between thesliding jaw and an anchorage member slidably confined in the base, theimprovement consisting in a provision for interlocking the anchoragemember and base by means of serrations.

Another object is to form said serrations in a novel and relativelyinexpensive manner.

Another object lies in attaching to said anchorage member a shankextending upwardly through the sliding jaw to set up said tensionalreaction, imposing such reaction on a face of the sliding jaw inclinedto the direction of sliding to cam said jaw forwardly responsive to saidreaction, affording said shank a forward and back play in the slidingjaw to permit the desired camming effect, and yieldably urging the shankto its forward limit of such. play.

Another object is to dispose an anchorage member for the sliding jaw ofa vise in a chamber in the vise base, elongated in the direction oftravel of said jaw, and to. form mating screw threads in said chamberand on the anchorage member, and to afford the anchorage member base,fixedly carrying on one of its ends a jaw 2,

formed integral with the base in the illustrated embodiment of theinvention. Slidable on the base to and from the jaw 2 is a jaw 3 havinga pair of guide flanges 4 downwardly projecting from the lateral marginsof its bottom face and fitting in guideways 5 marginally formed in thebase. The jaws 2 and 3 have parallel workclamping faces 6 accuratelyperpendicular to the top face of the base. The sliding jaw has a camface 1 extending downwardly and rearwardly from the top of said jaw,preferably at an angle of forty-five degrees to the direction of slidingtravel. Said jaw also has a rearward extension 8 at the bottom of saidcam face, such extension having a relatively slight vertical thickness.

Extending lengthwise of the base, from end to end thereof, is a chamber9, preferably a drilled hole tapped with a fairly fine standard V-typescrew thread, as for example, thirty-two threads to the inch. A slotll]. opens from the chamber 9 to the top face of the base, such slotextending from the jaw l to the rear end of the base and having a widthconsiderably less than the diameter of said chamber. Disposed in thechamher 9 is an anchorage member H for the sliding jaw, preferablysomewhat elongated lengthwise of said chamber, the top surface of saidanchorage member being transversely arcuate, conforming to the wall ofsaid chamber and be ing formed with a partial male screw thread, such asto accurately mate with the female; thread formed by the wall of saidchamber. The described anchorage member may be simply formed by grindingaway its sides and bottom after initially cutting a full thread adaptingsaid member to screw into the chamber 9, such grinding affording saidmember a vertical play in the chamber 9, such that the remainingserrations of said member may be engaged with or disengaged from theinterior serrations of the chamber 9. The anchorage member is attachedto the lower end of an elongated shank l2 which extends upwardly throughthe slot It and through a slot l3 vertically bisecting the rear portionof the sliding jaw. It is preferred to insert the shank l2 in a slotformed in the front end portion of the member II and to pivotallyconnect said member to the shank, as by a pin I4. The shank l'2 extendstransversely to the cam face I, and the forward end of the slot 13 has asimilar relation to said face. In passing through the slot l3 the shankhas flat lateral faces to engage the opposed walls of such slot, and anend portion lZa of the shank projecting above the cam face 1 iscylindrical and threaded to receive a nut I5. By tightening such nutagainst the face 1, the anchorage member may be drawn into interlockingengagement with the top face of the chamber 9 and a forward thrust maythen be applied to the sliding jaw. A spring l6 formed by an elongatedstrip of sheet metal projects from the extension 8 of the sliding jawforwardly into the slot l3 and has its forward end downwardly curved toapply a forward thrust to the shank l2. Said spring has an integralenlargement I611 at its rear end secured by screws I! to the extension8.

In use of the described vise, an object to be clamped is placed againstthe jaw 2 and the jaw 3 is slid forward to engage said object, theanchorage member being then in a lowered position in the chamber 9, sothat it may travel freely with the jaw 3. The operator now screws thenut I5 down on the threaded end of the shank, drawing the latter uptogether with the member II and thus interlocking the threads of suchmember with those of the chamber 9. As the nut I5 applies furtherpressure to the face i, the jaw 3 is cammed forwardly to tightly clampthe object against the jaw 2., The forward edge of the slot I3 is movedslightly away from the shank l2 during this clamping travel of the jaw9, the spring I6 yielding to permit such movement. As soon as the nut isretracted from the surface 1, the spring [6 slides the jaw 3 slightlyaway from the clamped object, allowing a ready removal of such object.The anchorage member continues, however, to retain the jaw 9 in place tobe again cammed to the same clamping position, in case another object ofthe same size is inserted between the jaws. Thus the described viselends itself to quantity production work in which a plurality of likework pieces are required to be held in sequence in the vise. If it isnecessary to retract the sliding jaw in excess of its camming travel,the anchorage member is releasable by applying a slight downwardpressure to the shank l2.

Forming screw threads on the top faces of the member If and chamber 9 toafford interlocking of said faces is a rapid and inexpensive method ofserrating said faces and assuring a desired uniform spacing of theserrations. It is to be noted that it would be a relatively difiicultmatter to serrate, in any other manner the top face of such a chamber asis indicated at 9. It would further be difiicult to produce in any othermanner, than the work-engaging end of the sliding jaw that primarilydetracts from the accuracy of most inexpensive vises. It is evident thatsuch tilting -may not occur in the described vise, since the shank i2 isextended in close proximity to the lower edge of the clampingv face ofthe sliding law.

It is a further advantage of the described vise that the means providedfor imposing a clamping pressure on the sliding jaw does not materiallytend to bow the vise base upwardly between its ends as do many vises inpresent day use. While such distortion of the base is of smallmagnitude, it is sufficient to seriously detract from accuracy.

What I claim is:

A vise comprising a base, a pair of clamping jaws on the base, oneslidable toward the other, an anchorage member for the sliding jaw, thebase having a chamber beneath the sliding jaw elongated in the directionof sliding of said jaw and receiving the anchorage member, the base alsohaving a slot opening from said chamber to the top face of the base andextending lengthwise of said chamber, the width of said slot being lessthan that of the anchorage member, serrations extending in asubstantially transverse relation to said chamber in the top faces ofthe chamber and anchorage member and proportioned to intermesh, a shankattached to the an chorage member and extending upward at a rear wardinclination through said slot and through the sliding jaw, such jawhaving a slot receiving the shank and extending to the rear end of suchjaw and affording the shank a forward and back play, such slot having awall adjacent to and forward of the shank and conforming to the shankinclination, a spring having an end thereof mounted on the rear end ofthe sliding jaw and projecting forwardly in said slot of the sliding jawto engage said shank, and means reacting between the shank and slidingjaw to stress the anchorage member upwardly and interlock its serrationswith those of said chamber.

HAROLD G. RENNER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS

